Cliffs at Étretat

Courbet’s marine scenes were often painted at �tretat, a Norman fishing village popular among artists of his generation and, later, the Impressionists. Its great cliffs, rising so precipitously from the beach and from the waters provided a striking contrast to sand-bound or storm-tossed boats below, and with the ever-changing sea and sky. Courbet painted many views of this site in the late 1860s and early 1870s. This painting stress a rock formation known as Aval or Aiouille, where a natural flying buttress appears to support an equally natural, crenellated tower. This sense of implicit architecture suggests a great city lost in primeval times.